While these big babies may be cute, just like their adult counterparts, notable weights often signal more serious health problems.

Mary Helen Black, a biostatistician with Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s department of research and evaluation explained to HuffPost in an interview last year, “There may be a general perception that, ‘Oh, the baby’s big, but so what?’ That’s a misperception.” She cautioned that babies who are born too large are at an increased risk “for very serious consequences both during delivery, for the mother and the infant, as well as later in life — for the infant.”

Known as “fetal macrosomia,” when a baby is born weighing more than 8 pounds, 13 ounces, this condition can be attributed to maternal obesity and diabetes, among other factors.

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